The AN0M 66: Mostafa Baluch among defendants ‘negotiating’ plea deals, court hears
Alleged drug kingpin Mostafa Baluch is among a host of defendants currently deep in negotiations with Commonwealth and State prosecutors after challenging the validity of the AN0M app sting. SEE THE LIST
Police & Courts
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Alleged drug kingpin Mostafa Baluch is considering pleading guilty to a series of drug charges connected to the worldwide AN0M app sting, a court has heard.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Sydney restaurateur, who made headlines in 2021 when he allegedly skipped bail by removing his ankle monitor, is among a host of alleged criminals currently deep in negotiations with Commonwealth and State prosecutors, seeking to nut out potential plea deals before their cases are committed to higher courts.
Baluch did not appear in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday during a mammoth call over of more than 60 cases linked to the AN0M app bust, however his lawyer told the court she had been in negotiations with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in a bid to have the matter resolved without a trial.
The move comes more than two years after Baluch was arrested during a police raid at his Pittwater home and charged with multiple offences including commercial drug importation, dealing with suspected proceeds of crime and perverting the course of justice.
He was granted bail on a $4 million surety in October that year, however allegedly cut off his ankle monitor within days of his release and attempted to flee the jurisdiction.
Police discovered him two weeks later hiding in the boot of a Mercedes Benz inside a shipping container bound for Queensland.
Baluch was returned to custody and remains behind bars on remand.
At the time of his arrest he was accused of being the financier behind a 900kg shipment of cocaine into Australia that had a street value of $270 million.
Police will allege in court that Baluch was monitored discussing the shipment with others using AN0M, a subscription-based encrypted app set up by authorities as part of a joint venture between the FBI in the United States, the Australian Federal Police and other law enforcement agencies targeting criminal organisations around the world.
The device containing the app was covertly distributed to alleged underworld figures, who began using it to communicate with each other.
Unbeknown to users, every message was being intercepted by law enforcement officials, who spent three years gathering evidence against hundreds of alleged criminals before revealing to sting to the world in 2021.
The AFP will allege in court that those arrested under the operation, dubbed Ironside, are linked to criminal enterprises such as the Australian-based Italian mafia, outlaw motorcycle gangs, Asian crime syndicates and Albanian organised crime networks.
Baluch is one of 66 defendants involved in a class action style lawsuit challenging the legality of the information obtained by police through the app.
Lengthy hearings took place earlier this year but a judgment is yet to be handed down.
In court on Tuesday, lawyers for fellow AN0M challengers George Chambour, Mende Trajkoski and Astro Waetford, uncle of pop singer and actor Jai Waetford, all indicated their clients were in the middle of negotiating possible plea deals with prosecutors.
Jai Waetford is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, Bondi fitness instructor Julian Lee is among several defendants who formally pleaded not guilty to their charges and had their cases committed for trial.
Lee has pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, stemming from his alleged involvement in a separate shipment of cocaine seized by police in 2021.
Those yet to indicate pleas will return to the Local Court on November 13, while those committed for trial will face arraignment in the NSW District Court on November 24.
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